Warren Gatland said he could be interested in coaching the 2021 British & Irish Lions in South Africa after steering his team to a 1-1 drawn series with New Zealand. Gatland, who wore a clown’s nose into the post-match press conference in Auckland, has coached the Lions on two successive tours and has yet to finish on the losing side.

No other international side has avoided defeat to the All Blacks in a series in New Zealand since 1994 and Gatland may yet make himself available for another stint. “To win two and draw one wouldn’t be a bad achievement,” said Gatland, having watched his side draw 15-15 in a hugely physical, tense encounter.

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“There’s a lot of water to flow under the bridge before then. Eddie Jones has put his name forward for it, hasn’t he? My focus now is back to Wales and 2019. I’m definitely finishing then, unless they get rid of me before then, but I’m not sure what’ll happen then. Maybe I’ll go to the beach and put my feet up for a while, but you never say never.”

Gatland said his side were slightly disappointed not to have won the third Test, but that the squad should be proud of the outcome. “I can understand people feel a bit flat. But when you reflect back, it’s pretty special to play the best team in the world in their back yard.

“If you’d said six weeks ago we’d come to New Zealand and draw a Test series, we’d probably have taken that. It feels like some achievement, especially considering we were totally written off with predictions for a 3-0 whitewash.

“This group of players have shown unbelievable character. It’s been a tough tour. Some of these players have been on two tours now and are undefeated as Lions players. Those players who have been on two tours should be very proud of their achievements.”

Kieran Read and Sam Warburton hold the trophy as the rest of the Lions players enjoy the moment. Photograph: Nigel Marple/Reuters

Gatland also hailed Sam Warburton for persuading the referee, Romain Poite, to take another look at the incident in the 78th-minute that resulted in a kickable New Zealand penalty being rescinded. The Lions captain urged Poite to take another look after Ken Owens had initially been penalised for catching the ball in an offside position, only for a scrum to be ultimately awarded.

“It’s not a penalty offence, in my opinion, so I was glad they had a look,” said Warburton. “I just asked him to check for the accidental offside. It was a shot to nothing as they had already awarded the penalty.”

Gatland, for his part, said it should have been a penalty to the Lions: “Kieran Read jumped into our player and I don’t think he had any chance of getting his hand on the ball. I thought he’d hit the player in the air. The man next to me [Warburton] has been quite smart and astute in being able to talk the referee from a penalty into an accidental offside. We would have been devastated as a group to have lost the game from that kick-off. The result was probably a fair reflection of two quality sides who really went hard at each other.”

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The All Blacks coach, Steve Hansen, was reluctant to discuss the decision, but did suggest the laws needed simplifying. “We all know what should have happened but, at the end of the day, it’s a game. As little kids, we’re taught to accept the good with the bad and that’s what we’re doing here. I’m not going to talk about it – the ref made his decision and we’re going to live with it. If we had scored another try ourselves, we wouldn’t be talking about this. There’s too many avenues that you can go down. That’s not the ref’s fault; that’s the lawbook’s fault. The people in charge of the game need to look at it.”

Neither Gatland nor Hansen were too concerned, however, about the lack of extra time, preferring the unlikely, but convenient, idea of the Lions reconvening in the colours of the Barbarians this November for a decider with the All Blacks at Twickenham. “That would be good, wouldn’t it? You’ll have to ask Premier Rugby if they’d release any of the players,” Gatland said.

Gatland confirmed that Alun Wyn Jones had passed a head-injury assessment after appearing to lose consciousness momentarily on the field, while Sean O’Brien is to have further tests on a shoulder injury.

The All Black captain, Read, said he felt a bit hollow after the draw, but did not dispute the series outcome. “Potentially, it was the right result if you look back on it. I’m proud of making 100 Tests, but I’d probably swap all of them for a win. We don’t turn up wanting a draw – we want to win.”